Treatment Of Preschool Children Research Articles

The Parental Concern and Acceptance of Silver Diamine Fluoride Treatment in Preschool Children: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract Aim: Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) is a minimally invasive treatment with proven efficacy for managing early childhood caries. However, the dark staining associated with SDF treatment remains a major concern that affects parental acceptance. This study examines the level of parental acceptance of SDF treatment for preschool children in Laos and explores associated factors such as parental anxiety, previous dental experience, and demographic data. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 324 parents of children aged 2–5 years enrolled in preschools in Vientiane Capital, Laos. Participants provided demographic information, details on their children’s dental history, and their own dental anxiety levels. Following a video demonstration of the effectiveness and application of SDF, parents completed a survey assessing their acceptance of and concerns about SDF using a 5-point Likert scale. Parental dental anxiety was measured with the modified dental anxiety scale. Data were analyzed using chi-square tests, independent t tests, and multiple logistic regression (P ≤ 0.05). Results: Eighty percent of the parents accepted SDF treatment for their children. Those highly concerned about SDF staining were significantly less likely to accept it as a treatment option (P < 0.01). Increased acceptance correlated with reduced concern about staining (95% confidence interval = 15.57–1095.88). Additionally, 84.9% of parents reported some level of dental anxiety, with older parents showing higher acceptance of SDF. Conclusions: Parents were highly receptive of the SDF treatment for their children’s primary dentition. Parents who were older tended to be less concerned about the staining, and those who had a high level of dental anxiety were more likely to accept SDF treatment.

Design and evaluation of a serious video game to treat preschool children with speech sound disorders

Speech sound disorder (SSD) is one of the most common communication disorders in children, which must be diagnosed and treated in childhood to prevent its negative psychological, occupational, and social consequences in adulthood. The use of serious games is one technology that could help treat SSD. This study aims to design and evaluate the usability of a digital game for 3–6-year-old children. This developmental study was carried out in three main stages: determining information requirements, designing and developing a digital game, and evaluating the usability of the designed game. In the first stage, the consonants, syllables, words, and sentences that should be used in the game were determined through focus group sessions and a questionnaire completed by 30 speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in two Delphi rounds. In the designing and developing stage, the game design document was first written, and then sketches and wireframes were drawn based on this document. Then, the game was developed in the second phase using Java programming language. In the third stage, the usability of the designed game was evaluated by six experts and 22 SLPs using Nielsen's usability heuristics and the Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ), respectively. Also, the usability of the game was evaluated by ten children. To determine the information requirements, SLPs confirmed 23 consonants, 138 syllables, 564 words, and 69 sentences to teach children the game. According to Nielsen's usability heuristics, the designed game had 23 unique usability problems with a mean severity of 2.29. "User control and freedom," with five usability problems, was the most frequently identified problem, and "error prevention," with a mean severity of 3.83, was the most severe problem. The results of the SLPs’ evaluation also showed that the "interface quality" of the designed game obtained the highest score, with a mean score of 6.25 out of 7. Also, 100% of children stated that the game was designed beautifully, and 90% of children also liked the game. A serious game designed for children with SSDs achieved satisfactory results in usability evaluation. Therefore, this smartphone-based game can be easily used among these children to provide fun therapy sessions under the supervision of parents.

Hubungan Peran Keluarga Dengan Keberhasilan Pengobatan Tuberculosis Paru Pada Anak Pra-Sekolah Di Rumah Sakit Wilayah Bogor

Introduction: Pulmonary Tuberculosis is an infectious disease and is latent. Nearly 40% of children with pulmonary Tuberculosis are transmitted by their families. Pulmonary Tuberculosis can develop into miliary Tuberculosis or meningitis. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional quantitative descriptive method, with a correlation type. The sampling technique used was total sampling, namely patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in preschool children at the Bogor Regional Hospital totaling 30 respondents. The instruments used were family role questionnaire sheets based on Friedman's theory (questionnaire of medical outcomes study, social support survey) and a questionnaire on the success rate of pulmonary Tuberculosis treatment. The dependent and independent variables in this study are the role of the family and the success rate of pulmonary Tuberculosis treatment in preschool children. Results: It was found that the role of a good family with the highest number was 19 respondents (63.3%), and the success of pulmonary Tuberculosis treatment was in the complete category of 26 respondents (86.7%). The results of the Correlation Test for the p-value were 0,012 (< 0,05). Discussion: This study aims to determine whether there is a relationship between the role of the family and the success of pulmonary Tuberculosis treatment in preschool children at Bogor Regional Hospital.

Comparative Analysis of Effectiveness of Online Versus Offline Parent-Mediated Therapeutic Intervention in Preschool Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Comparative Analysis of Effectiveness of Online Versus Offline Parent-Mediated Therapeutic Intervention in Preschool Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Early childhood caries, family functioning, and common mental disorders in a region of Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Aim: This cross-sectional study aimed to analyze the need for dental treatment in preschool children concerning early childhood caries (ECC), evaluated by the School Health Program (SHP); family functioning; and common mental disorders (CMDs) within families in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Methods: A structured questionnaire was applied to the main caretaker of the 61 children by telephone contact. The questions addressed socioeconomic and demographic data; the Questionnaire of General Family Functioning (GFF) sought to investigate family functioning; and the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) served to screen for CMDs among the main caretakers. Secondary data were collected from the SHP to survey the need for oral health treatments. The dependent variable was the need for tooth restoration or extraction. The data were analyzed descriptively and by Pearson’s chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests (p < 0.05), using SPSS v.22.0. Results: The median age of the children was 5 years old, and 32.8% required treatment for dental caries. There was no association between the need for tooth restoration or extraction and socioeconomic factors, family relations, and the presence of CMDs in the main caretaker (p > 0.05). However, there was a greater frequency of need for treatment in families with low income (24.6%) and with less social support (family and friends < 1). Children whose family was included in the Family Grant Program (62.3%), the respondent was the mother (57.4%), had completed high school or higher (36.1%), no paid work (42.6%), with a traditional or nuclear family structure (27.8%), and living in a house with good sanitary conditions (63.9%) presented a lower frequency of need for treatment. The GFF and SRQ-20 values among preschool children with and without the need for dental treatment were similar. Conclusion: There was a trend of a higher need for ECC treatment in children from families with lower income and less familiar and social support.

Efficacy and Safety of Probiotics for Dental Caries in Preschool Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Early childhood caries is one of the most serious and high-priced oral health conditions among young children. With advancing dental sciences, the focus of dental caries treatment is shifted from restorative procedures to preventive measures, and a modality grabbing attention is probiotics. Probiotics exert their effects in many ways as chemical inhibition of pathogenic bacteria and stimulation of the immune response through the production of immunoglobulin A and many more. This systematic review aims to explore the efficacy and safety of probiotics in dental caries in preschool children. The study was registered in the PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (registration number: CRD42020159058). The search was done for randomized control trials in electronic databases such as Cochrane, PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov, Medline, and Embase. It has further included manual searches of journals, conference abstracts, and books. Three reviewers done the selection of the study as per the criteria and also did the risk of bias assessment independently and wherever required, a fourth reviewer resolved the discrepancy in case of disagreement. The nine randomized control trials were included in the study, and the pooled analysis revealed probiotics as an effective intervention in preschool children with dental caries. The results about the efficacy of probiotics in the prevention of dental caries are very encouraging, though the level of evidence is still inadequate.

Abstract P616: Implementing a Dietary Energy Density Intervention in Preschool Children

Introduction: The preschool years have been identified as a critical time to intervene on energy balance behaviors to halt the progression of obesity. In children, strategies for achieving physical activity recommendations are well established. Less clear are strategies for implementing an optimal dietary approach—one that maintains a healthy body weight and improves diet quality. Energy density (ED), the amount of energy per unit weight of food (kcal/g), may be a promising dietary approach. Hypothesis: We tested the hypothesis that a lower ED dietary approach will lower ED and energy intake and demonstrate better maintenance of body mass index (BMI z-score) than standard dietary recommendations in young children at risk for obesity. Methods: Thirty-six preschool children (3.5±1.1 years; 52.8% female; 52.8% White; 16.7% Hispanic or Latino; BMI percentile 56.8±22.2) and their parent (35.4±6.2 years; 86.1% female; 55.6% White; 13.9% Hispanic or Latino; BMI 38.2±5.4 kg/m 2 ) participated in a 6-month, 14-session, family-based behavioral intervention. Participants were randomized to a low-ED dietary approach (consume ≥10 foods/day with an ED ≤1.0 kcal/g and ≤2 foods/day with an ED ≥ 3.0 kcal/g; LOW-ED), or standard dietary recommendations (meet recommended daily servings of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; STANDARD). Both interventions had physical activity goals of 60 minutes/day for children and 150 minutes/week for adults. Dietary and anthropometric assessments occurred at baseline and 6-months. Completer and intent-to-treat (ITT) analyses, with outliers removed, used repeated measures general linear mixed models to examine child change in ED (calculated as both all foods and beverages and food only), kcals, and BMI z-score from baseline to 6 months. Results: ITT analyses showed that the change in ED did not differ between the LOW-ED condition and STANDARD condition when calculated as for foods and beverages (LOW-ED: Δ-0.1 kcal/g vs. STANDARD: Δ+0.1 kcal/g, p = 0.12) or food only (LOW-ED: Δ-0.2 kcal/g vs. STANDARD: Δ+0.1 kcal/g, p = 0.06). There was a significant time by condition interaction with kcals/d decreasing in LOW-ED and increasing in STANDARD over time for completers (LOW-ED: Δ-98 kcals vs. STANDARD: Δ+212 kcals, p = 0.04), but not when using ITT (LOW-ED: Δ+5 kcals vs. STANDARD: Δ+211 kcals, p = 0.09). Under ITT BMI z-score had a main effect of time, with both LOW-ED and STANDARD conditions significantly increasing over time (p=0.03). Conclusion: In conclusion, these data suggest a LOW-ED dietary approach is an alternative way to lower ED and energy intake in young children at risk for obesity.

The Requirement of a Situated Approach in the Treatment of Preschool Children with a Refugee Background: Discussion of a Case Study

In recent years, increasingly more German-born preschool children of refugee parents have been referred to the 'specialized consultation service for refugee minors' of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University Hospital Münster. This 'change' in the use of the above-mentioned consultation service could be understood as a 'natural' consequence of the family life cycle of forced migrants who some years ago came to Germany as adolescents or young adults and started here a family. The treatment of 'preschoolers with a refugee background', as we may call this group of patients, confronts mental health practitioners with particular challenges. In this contribution, we specify some of these challenges and argue that, due to the deep intertwinement of different aspects of these patients' condition, a 'situated approach' is required when treating this population.When planning therapeutic interventions for preschoolers with refugee background, their families should be conceived as unified systems which in their social and transcultural embeddedness exhibit trans-individual vulnerabilities and resources. By discussing a case study, we illustrate how an extremely challenging child psychiatric treatment could succeed only on the condition that we focused on the interconnectedness of various factors determining not merely the patient's symptomatic behavior but, furthermore, the behavior of the family, i. e., on the condition of focusing on the situated nature of the problematic.

Promoting psychological well-being in preschool children: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness- and yoga-based socio-emotional learning intervention

BackgroundMental health issues in youths have cascading negative effects on school outcomes, professional life, and physical health. Psychological well-being (P-WB) is an important protective factor against mental illness. Preliminary research suggests that mindfulness- and yoga-based socio-emotional learning (SEL) interventions can each have a positive impact on preschoolers P-WB. The objective of this trial is to rigorously evaluate the effect of a 24-week combined mindfulness- and yoga- based SEL intervention in preschool children from a French socio-economically disadvantaged area.MethodsThe P-WB promotion intervention is compared to a wait-list control condition in a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT). Sixty-four pre-Kindergarten classrooms are randomized to the intervention or control group. Primary outcomes measure self-management capacity and core P-WB components: connection, insight, engagement, and positive relationship. Secondary outcomes include measures of mental health, executive functioning, and school performance. Primary and secondary outcomes are assessed through teacher questionnaires, standardized observations of children in school context, and experimental tasks and by collecting results of the national evaluation at first grade. All children-level outcomes are evaluated at pre-intervention, at the end of the intervention, and 1 year later (follow-up analysis), to the exception of school performance which is evaluated at follow-up only. Intention-to-treat analyses, accounting for clustering within classes, will adopt a random effects linear regression model to examine outcomes for the intervention versus control children.DiscussionThis is the first trial to rigorously evaluate a combined mindfulness- and yoga-based P-WB promotion intervention, and the first RCT evaluating a SEL curriculum in French schools. Results may have key implications for P-WB promotion in preschool children.Trial registrationhttps://www.drks.de/ DRKS00028623. Retrospectively registered on 30 May 2022

Consensus on the Best Practice Guidelines for Psychomotor Intervention in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Psychomotor intervention has been used to promote development by the enhancement of psychomotor and socio-emotional competence. However, studies with high-quality evidence, describing psychomotor-intervention processes and outcomes are scarce. Therefore, we aimed to generate expert consensus regarding psychomotor-intervention guidelines to support psychomotor therapists through the design and implementation of interventions for preschool (3−6 years old) children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A formal consensus process was carried out, using modified nominal group (phase I) and Delphi survey (phase II) techniques. We recruited 39 Portuguese experts in psychomotor intervention with preschool children with ASD in phase I. Experts participated in at least one of the five online meetings, discussing themes (e.g., objectives, methods, strategies) concerning psychomotor intervention with preschool children with ASD. A deductive thematic analysis from phase I resulted in 111 statements composing round 1 of the Delphi survey. Thirty-five experts completed round 1, and 23 round 2. The experts reached a consensus (agreement > 75%) on 88 statements, grouped under 16 sections, (e.g., intervention source, general setting, intended facilitation-style), reflecting generic psychomotor-intervention guidelines. Consensus guidelines may be used to support transparent and standard psychomotor interventions, although further studies should be undertaken to determine their efficacy.

Efficacy and determinants of vacuum bell treatment in preschool children with pectus excavatum.

ObjectiveThe outcome of vacuum bell (VB) treatment for preschool patients with pectus excavatum (PE) is poorly understood. We aim to investigate the short-term treatment effect of VB with a three-dimensional scanner and assess the clinical and demographic factors that might influence treatment outcomes.MethodsWe conducted a chart review study to review the records of preschool patients with PE who received VB treatment in a tertiary hospital from January 1, 2021, through January 1, 2022. Demographic data and chest wall deformity assessments were recorded at follow-up, including the anterior chest wall depths and depth ratio (DR). The demographic and clinical factors influencing treatment outcomes were tested using a logistic regression model.Results139 patients who accepted vacuum bell treatment were included in the final study analysis, with a mean age of 4.6 years and a BMI of 14.9. Forty-three patients (30.9%) with a depth of less than 3 mm met the termination criteria and showed cosmetic results. The changes in depths (P < 0.001) and DR (P < 0.001) were statistically significant in 55 patients with three or four follow-ups. Multifactor logistic regression analysis showed that initial depth (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.58–0.84, P < 0.001) and treatment period (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.23–2.04, P < 0.001) were independent predictors of achieving complete correction.ConclusionVB is an effective treatment modality in preschool patients in the short-term follow-up, which is influenced by the depth of depression and the duration of treatment. However, further prospective studies are needed to confirm these results.

The Use of Bacterial Lysate for the Prevention of Wheezing Episodes in Preschool Children: A Cost-Utility Analysis

Although increasing recent evidence has shown the efficacy of bacterial lysate therapy for the prevention of wheezing episodes and asthma exacerbations in pediatric patients, evidence of its cost-effectiveness in preschool patients is scarce. To evaluate the cost-utility of bacterial lysate therapy as an add-on to standard care of preschool children with recurrent wheezing. To achieve the objectives of the study, we used a Markov simulation model with 3 mutually exclusive nonabsorbent states (regular Markov chain). Effectiveness parameters were obtained from a recent systematic review of the literature with meta-analyses (5 randomized controlled trials, 433 children). Cost data were obtained from hospital bills and from the national manual of drug prices in Colombia. The study was carried out from the perspective of the national health care system in Colombia. The main outcome of the model was quality-adjusted life-years. To assess the robustness of the model's results, we performed deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Compared with standard care, bacterial lysate add-on therapy to standard care was associated with lower overall treatment costs (US $694.03 vs $830.71 average cost per patient) and the greatest gain in QALYs (0.9211 vs 0.9154 QALYs on average per patient), thus showing dominance. In Colombia, compared with standard care, bacterial lysate add-on therapy to standard care for treating preschool children with recurrent wheezing is a dominant strategy because it showed a greater gain in QALYs at lower total treatment costs.

Update on Long-Acting Anticholinergics in Children and Adolescents With Difficult and Severe Asthma.

Tiotropium bromide is the only long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) approved for treatment of patients aged ≥6 years old who have symptoms of uncontrolled asthma. Results from several clinical trials have found that once-daily inhaled tiotropium bromide is safe and efficacious in 6- to 17-year-olds with symptomatic asthma despite treatment with inhaled corticosteroids, with or without other medications. There are still few available studies investigating the impact of tiotropium bromide treatment in preschool children with suboptimal control. In this narrative review, we summarize the pharmacological effects of the LAMA tiotropium bromide, provide an overview about current asthma studies at different pediatric ages, and describe future research needs.

Treatment of preschool children with obsessive compulsive disorder.

The aim was to examine the clinical features of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in preschool and the effectiveness of aripiprazole with a standardized Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy (CBFT) in the treatment of preschoolers with OCD. Twelve preschool children, 36-72months of age were diagnosed with OCD according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the Fifth Edition criteria by a fellowship-trained child and adolescent psychiatrist. They were evaluated with Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children Present and Lifetime version and Childhood Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) at baseline, at the end of the 12th and 24th weeks of treatment. The baseline mean of total CY-BOCS score decreased from 33.67 to 13.83 at the 12th week and 5.58 at the end of the 24th week of treatment. Also, 66.7% of them had at least one psychiatric comorbidity. Overall, this study revealed the effect of aripiprazole with CBFT in preschool-aged children with OCD. Also, the presence of comorbidity that is seen frequently in preschoolers with OCD may complicate the treatment. Therefore, there is a need to increase awareness of OCD and its comorbidities in preschoolers to supply treatment at an early age.

Parental preferences for dental caries treatment in preschool children according to socio-demographic conditions and beliefs about the primary dentition.

To assess parental preferences for dental caries treatment and its association with socio-demographic conditions and beliefs about the primary dentition. Study design: Cross-sectional study. This study was conducted among 512 parents of 2- to 5-year-old children in the State of Tocantins, in the North Region of Brazil. A self-administered questionnaire on preferences for dental caries treatment, socio-demographic conditions and beliefs about the primary dentition was responded by parents considering two hypothetical clinical scenarios: if their child had one or more asymptomatic caries lesions (without pain), one or more symptomatic caries lesions (toothache). Poisson regression models fitted the association between explanatory variables and the preference to conservative interventions. It can be concluded that parental preferences for dental caries treatment in preschool children depend on mother's age and education level, as well as on beliefs about the primary dentition.

Treatment of Preschool Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Trial to Evaluate a Learning Style Profile Intervention Program in China.

ObjectiveTo investigate whether the provision of learning style profile (LSP) training improves development in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in China and to describe the characteristics of children who benefit from the intervention.MethodsEighty-one children aged 36 to 72 months who were diagnosed with ASD for the first time were recruited for the intervention group. All of them received 24 weeks of LSP training, consisting of hospital- and home-based training. Twenty-one children with ASD of the same age in the control group had never received any intervention after diagnosis but underwent an assessment. Assessments were conducted at baseline and 24 weeks later. Differences in the developmental level and severity of ASD symptoms over time and between groups were analyzed by repeated standardized measures. Secondary analyses examined age effects among the 36– 48-, 48– 60-, and 60–72-month age groups.ResultsWithin-group comparison of the intervention group revealed significant treatment effects after the intervention, according to: language, social and adaptive developmental quotients (DQs) of the China Developmental Scale; total Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) score; and hyperactivity, peer problems, total difficulties, and prosocial behavior scores of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Similar gains were observed in gross and fine motor DQs of the China Developmental Scale and emotional symptoms and conduct problems scores of the SDQ; however, the differences between these pre- and postintervention scores did not reach statistical significance. Comparisons among the three age groups in the intervention groups demonstrated a significant age effect on adaptive DQs of the China Developmental Scale; total CARS score; hyperactivity, peer problems and total difficulties scores of the SDQ. Comparison between the intervention and control groups revealed significant treatment effects on language, social and adaptive DQs of the China Developmental Scale; total CARS score; and emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems, total difficulties, and prosocial behavior scores of the SDQ after the intervention. Similar gains were observed in gross and fine motor DQs of the China Developmental Scale, although differences between the two groups did not reach statistical significance.ConclusionOur findings suggest that LSP training can effectively improve social behavior and reduce the severity of ASD symptoms in children with ASD. Our data also highlight the importance of early intervention.

Long-term effectiveness of behavioural intervention in preschool children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in Southeast China \u2013 a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundAttention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common behavioral disorder. Behavioural intervention in preschool children with ADHD is considered effective. This study discussed the long-term effectiveness of behavioural intervention in the context of nondrug therapy.MethodsThe study was a prospective, randomised controlled trial in which 201 preschoolers diagnosed with ADHD who were not receiving any treatment were assigned to two groups from January 2018 to May 2019, 101 were assigned to the conventional group and 100 to the behavioural intervention group. The behavioural intervention group included parental training, behavioural therapy, attention training, relief therapy and game therapy, in addition to the conventional group offerings. Children were evaluated at a baseline, at the end of the 12-month intervention and six months after the intervention. The primary and secondary outcome variables included attention time, the impulse-hyperactivity and hyperactivity index from Conners parent symptom questionnaire (PSQ), full-scale attention quotient (FAQ) and full-scale response control quotient (FRCQ) from integrated visual and auditory comprehensive continuous performance tests. The attention time was observed and recorded by parents, and others were performe(PSQ)d by physicians in the clinic. All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS V26.0 (IBM), including the descriptive statistics and mixed-effects models and so on.ResultsThe participants’ mean age was (66.17±9.00) months in the behavioural group and (67.54±6.22) months in the conventional group .A total of 190 participants completed a follow-up six months after the intervention. The attention time, Conners parent symptom questionnaire (PSQ), full-scale attention quotient (FAQ) and full-scale response control quotient (FRCQ) increased significantly over time, and the behavioural group improvements were higher than those of conventional group. There was a significant main effect of time (pretest/posttest/follow-up) and group on all outcome measures (t =-12.549-4.069, p<0.05), and a significant interaction of time and group on attention time, impulsivity/hyperactivity, FAQ and FRCQ (t =-3.600-3.313, p<0.05).ConclusionBehavioural intervention can effectively improve behaviour management and relieve symptoms in children with ADHD. These effects lasted at least six months. This study provides a promising approach for improving clinical efficacy with preschool children with ADHD.

5.16 The Role of Alpha-2 Adrenergic (α2A) Agonists in ADHD Treatment in Preschool Children: Benefits, Trends, and Demographics From the Current Literature Evidence

5.16 The Role of Alpha-2 Adrenergic (α2A) Agonists in ADHD Treatment in Preschool Children: Benefits, Trends, and Demographics From the Current Literature Evidence

Interventions for Pre-School Children with Co-Occurring Phonological Speech Sound Disorder and Expressive Language Difficulties

Background: Pre-school children with co-occurring phonological speech sound disorder and expressive language difficulties are more likely to have ongoing communication and literacy needs compared to children with these difficulties in isolation. However, to date there has been no systematic or scoping review of the literature specific to interventions for this frequently seen and high-risk group.&#x0D; Aims: The objective of this paper is to provide a rigorous and detailed protocol for a scoping review of interventions, which target both phonological speech sound disorder and expressive language difficulties in pre-school children with primary speech, language and communication needs. The protocol includes details on the development of a search strategy, as well as the trial of an extraction tool.&#x0D; Methods/Design: Included studies must aim to concurrently improve both speech production and expressive language. Children within included studies must be aged between 2:0 and 5:11 years and have communication needs with no known cause. In accordance with the Joanna Briggs institute scoping review methods guidelines, an initial search of the Ovid Emcare and Ovid Medline databases was conducted. Following this a final search strategy for these databases were produced. A draft extraction form was developed by the first author; this was then trialed by two authors on four articles each.&#x0D; Discussion: Following the systematic development of an initial search strategy and extraction form, a scoping review of this topic can take place. The development of a rigorous scoping review protocol is essential in enhancing the transparency and reliability of the subsequent review. A pre-developed search strategy and trialing of an extraction form is a fundamental part of this process.

TRAS: Validity and sensitivity of a language assessment tool for children with ASD.

Interventions for preschool children with autism typically require professionals and parents to identify which social and language skills the individual child shows deficits in. Many assessment tools aimed at identifying such deficits exist, but they often require extensive training to use. The present study investigated the potential usefulness for said assessment purposes of the Norwegian assessment tool, TRAS - "Tidig Registrering Av Språkutveckling" (i.e. Nordic acronym for assessment of early language development), which can be used by preschool teachers without any specific training. Participants were 54 children with ASD, aged 2-5years, enrolled in a behavioral intervention program. Participants were scored using TRAS at three time points during treatment to investigate TRAS' sensitivity for detecting change. Only participants who had TRAS scores registered at all three time points were used for this analysis (n=27). At intake, children were also scored using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, the results of which was then compared to TRAS scores. Results showed that TRAS scores increased significantly across time points, indicating that the tool is sensitive to treatment effects. TRAS scores also correlated significantly with Vineland communication subscale (n=50), indicating that the measure can be used to measure language abilities in children with ASD. We conclude that TRAS is a potential alternative to more comprehensive language assessment tools for children with ASD.